Elastic wheel.



`L. HARRINGTON..

ELASTIG WHEEL.

APPLIUATION FILED APR. z. 1911.

z SHEETS-SHEET 1'.

s PETERS cm, wAsmNarogv, D. c.

Patented July 14, 1914.

L. HARRINGHION.

ELASTIG WHEEL.

APPLICATION FILED APB. 2a, 1911.

1, 1 03,5 l 2. Patented July 14, 1914.

III/l 'UNT TES PATENT OFFICE.

WAYNE, INDIANA,

Specification of Letters Patent.

AND I-IOM'ER P. MOSES, OF FORT Enns-'rio WHEEL.

Patent-ea July 14, 1914.

Application tiled April 28, 1911. Serial No. 623,883.

To all whom 'it may concern Be it known that l, LESLIE HARRINGTON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Elastic lVheels, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specication.

The invention relates to elastic or resilient wheels for vehicles and consists of certain improvements on the invention disclosed in my application Serial No. 550,282 filed March 1S, 1910.

r1`he object of the invention is to provide a strong, simple and eiiicient resilient vehicle wheel and particularly one in which the springs and other moving and shifting parts are so constructed and arranged as to avoid to the greatest possible extent wear due to friction of the parts and deterioration of the materials due to heating.

To accomplish these and other objects which are hereinafter set forth, the invention consists in the features of novelty described in the specification shown in the drawings forming a part thereof and nally pointed out more specifically in the appended claims.

ln the said drawings, Figure 1 is a side view of a segment of my improved wheel, the greater part of the rim and tire thereof being in section to disclose the details of construction. Fig. 2 is an enlarged radial section through tire and rim taken along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 1 showing the details of construction by which the attachment of the tire of the rim of the wheel is secured at the outer extremities of the flat springs. Figs. 1 and 5 are perspective views of parts hereinafter described, and enlarged to show the details thereof.

The wheel, including the hub and spokes, may be of any usual or desired construction as, for example, the metal hub indicated by the reference character 10, and the wood spokes 11 of Fig. 1. To the outer extremities of the spokes the usual felly or rim 12,

which as usual may be of wood or any other V desired material, is secured. riphery of the rim 12 I place a circumferential supporting band of suitable metal, as steel, indicated by the reference character 153. The rim 12 is widest at its inner circumference, this portion being indicated by the reference character 11. Above this wide portion of the rim, the body portion is narrowed or cut away as indicated and the circumferential metallic band 13 is preferably of the same width as the narrowed portion of the rim. The wider portions 14 of the rim are preferably grooved and in these grooves packing, as indicated at 15, is secured, such packing being adapted to contact with the circumferential side plates 16 and 17 of the tire, thus forming a closure to exclude foreign particles of dirt, dust and the like from the interior portion of the tire. The circumferential plates 16 and 17 are secured to the sides of a circumferential channeled member 18, their upper edges, extending some distance beyond the outer periphery of the channeled member 18,'being iianged inwardly as indicated at 16a and 17a, for the purpose of retaining in position the peripheral shoe or cushion tire which may be of any suitable cushioning or resilient material, although a firm material, as fiber, is preferred, which is indicated by the reference character 19, in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings. For elastically supporting the tire upon the rim, a plurality of springs of an improved construction are employed. These springs are preferably built up of a plurality of fiat pieces of metal, as shown in F 1, there being one member of flat material as indicated by the reference character 20 of suitable spring steel, one end of which is curved for a short distance to conform to the outer periphery of the metallic band 13, the material of this spring being of the same width as the band 13 and the contracted outer portion of the rim 12. Beneath the spring 20 is preferably although not necessarily an auxiliary supporting flat spring as indicated by the reference character 21, which may serve to strengthen and support the spring 20, both springs 20 and 21V being deflected tangentially from the ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, l

On the pe- :il

outer periphery of the rim band 13 in order to contact with and support the movable tire portion of the wheel.

To secu-re ,the springs 20, 21 to the rim of the wheel, suitable retaining bolts, as indicated by the reference characters 22, are employed one for each spring, such bolts passing Iradially through the rim 12, metallic2 band 13and the springs 20, 21, and through suitable U-shaped clamps, the angular extensions of which pass over the ends of.

springs 20, 21 metallic band 13 and the contracted side portions of the rim 12 and are seated at their extremities against the top i side of the shoulders formed by the widened portions 141 of the'rim, these clamps being indicated'by the reference character 23. It is' preferred that the bolts y22 be passed through the rim 12 with their threaded lends extending on the outside of the clamps 28I andv their heads on the inner peripheral portions of the rim on account of the appearr ance 'of the assembled wheel and for the` reason that threaded nuts, asl indicated at 24, y

erably be countersunk in the extensions ofA the clamps and the other lends of the bolts threaded to engage threaded holes in the opposite sides ofthe clamps, the bolts 26 passing through suitable holes or grooves formed in therim 12 preferably at the extreme out-er surface thereof immediately beneath thefmetallic retaining band In building u p the springs it is preferred that the members 21'shall terminate before the spring reaches the inner 4surface of the tire, the'materal of the spring 20, however, being extended and formed with a loop as indicated by t-he reference character 20a, the extremity of the' material being doubled upon'itself and secured together preferably by a rivet as indicated at The loops 20a at the outer extremities ofthe springs are formed with the sides thereof approximately parallel so that the loops may pass over suitable anti-friction rollers journaled in the 'tire for the purpose of securing t-he tire to the rim through the intermediary of the springs. f These anti-friction rollers are shown on the interior of the looped portions of the springs in Figs. 1 to 3, inclusive, being rotatably supported on suitable bushings 28 extending between the angular flanges on the flanged tire member 18 and surrounding bolts 29 which are headed at one end and passed through the side plates 16, 17, of the tire, theV flanges of the channel member'18 As a furtherl vand are threaded at their other extremities to take suitable threaded nuts for securing the parts in position. The anti-friction rollers referred to for supporting the looped portions 20 vof the springs are cylindrical in form and sleeved over metallic bushings 28.

These rollers are preferably of -iber andare vamount of friction and providing against vheating and undue wear which would otherwise result. This result, providing against heating and wear dueto friction betiwteen coperating parts of metal, is further secured by placing circumferential bands of fiber as indicated at 31 on the Vinterior of the channeled portion of the metallic member 18 perforating suchk strips at intervals to permit the securing bolts` 29 and their metallic bushings 28 to be passed through these fibrous strips. When these "areem-v ployed the fiber rollers 30 areshortened, and the material lof the springs, particularly the looped portions 20a thereof, is narrowed so that these parts contact with the circum` ferential fiber liningsl y31.

Tol take up any looseness in the `connection between Ithe 'tire and the rim due to the movement of the anti-frictionrollers wit-h.- i'n the looped portions 20av of the springs suitable stops'are formed within the interior channeled "portion of the lmetallic member 18, 4as indicated bythe .reference character 32vshown in detail in Fig.` 5L These 'stops maybe secured to the interior ofthe channeled member 1S by any suitable means, as by the screws 38 passing through flanged portions of the member 18 and thev fiber linings 31. As a further means screws, as indicated at 34, may be passed downwardly through the outer periphery of the member 18 and threaded into the stops. The stops 32 support one end of a plurality of coil springs as indicated by the reference character 35, there being preferably two of such springs secured to each by the retaining bolts The opposite ends ofthe springs 35 are passed over lugs 37a integral o`n fiber blocks 37, one of which is shown in enlarged detail in F ig. 4, these blocks having the side opposite the lugs referred to formed concave to fitover the convex forward por'- tions of the loops ,20%1 of the springs.' By so forming the blocks 37, since the pressure of the coil springs on the blocks will be constant, the parts will be kept constantly together and the act-ion of the coil springs 35 will normally tend to separate the stops 32 secured to the tire and the forward extremities of the looped portions '20a of the springs with the result that the anti-friction rollers carried on bolts 29 secured tothe tire will be seated against the forward extremities of the interior portions of the spring loops. In this manner the tire is rigidly anchored to the rim of the wheel by the springs secured as described to the wheel rim and also normally in contact with the tire through the antifriction rollers which are fixed rigidly to the tire. lVhen, therefore, the wheel of my improved construction is employed on a motor car and power is applied to the hub of the wheel for the pur-pose of moving the car, the wheel will be rotated in the direction indicated by the arrows in Fig. 1 while the connection between the wheel rim and the tire will be an unusually positive connection and driving pow-er may be applied to the hub of the wheel and transmitted to the tire without injuring the elastic connections between the rim and the tire.

In spring wheels heretofore constructed it has been found difficult to ancho-r the rims and the tires to prevent injury to the delicate means heretofore employed for securing resiliency between the parts. It will be seen that this difficulty is avoided in my improved construction, because any power applied to turn the rim of the wheel when rotated in the direction indicated by the arrows will result in a direct pull lengthwise of the steel springs and that such pull will be distributed equally upon each spring of the series around the entire periphery of the wheel. Heretofore in the constructions employed in spring wheels the result has usually been that the entire strain between the rim and tire has been imposed upon a single resilient connection out of a series of such connections distributed around the periphery of the wheel. It will be further seen that the action of compression coil springs 35 interposed between the ends of the flat springs and the tire will constantly hold the tireJ and the rim of the wheel in a fixed definite relation preventing any looseness or noise when the wheel is in operation. It `will also be seen that when pressure is applied to the tire of the wheel causing the tire to approach the rim, such approach of the parts will be resisted both by the flat springs 20, 21, and the coil springs, since the approach of the tire to the rim of the wheel will tend to lengthen the spring 20 causing the looped portion 28 to ride over the antifriction roller and causing the forward extremity of the loop portion 2Oa of the `Hat spring to approach the fixed stop 34: and hence will compress coil springs lVhen such pressure is released both the flat springs 20, 21, and the coil springs being under tension, the parts will be `promptly returned to normal, as shown in Fig. 1. My construction is therefore particularly advantageous because of the unusual strength which may be given to the parts due to the features of construction hereinbefore described. For example, heretofore it has been usually found necessary in elastic wheels to secure the tires to the rims of the wheels by peripheral side plates which slide over the sides of the wheel rims similar to those indicated by the reference characters 16, 17, and it has been found necessary to make these side plates of a sufliciently strong construction to withstand all side strains between tire and rim. These side plates have, therefore, usually been made so heavy as to seriously interfere with the proper operation and resiliency of the wheels. By the use of my improved flat steel springs 20, 21, and particularly the improved means for permanently and securely clamping them to the rims and their uniform widths extending from rim into the inner channel portions of the tires and bearing against the fiber linings in the tires, enables these fiat steel springs to resist practically all side strains tending to displace the tires laterally from the rims of the wheels. This improved construction makes it possible to make the side plates 16, 17, of a very light quality of material, their chief function being merely to exclude dirt, dust and foreign particles from the interior of the tires. Furthermore the fiber linings comprising the peripheral side strips at the endsy of the anti-friction rollers since they extend around the periphery of the wheel they receive any friction which might result between the springs and the tire, and these, together with the fiber roller-v and the fiber member 37 between the coil springs and the fiat spring, practically re lieve the wheel of any Contact `of metal upon metal, thus preventing` noise and the deterioration ofthe metal of the springs due to friction and consequent heating and therefore greatly prolonging the life of the wheel. Furthermore, vwith my improved construction, the side plates 1G, 17, of the tire may be readily removed, thus rendering the interior of the tire easily accessible for the purpose of adjusting or repairing any worn or injured parts.

The springs and also their associated parts, it will be seen, are in duplicate, which renders theJ manufacture of the parts by labor-saving machineryeasy and makes the wheel economical as well as efficient on account of the ease and cheapness with which repairs may be made.

In order that the invention might be understood the details of the embodiment most preferred have been shown and described in detail. It will be apparent that persons skilled in this art may resort to many modifications of the details shown without departing from the purpose and spirit of the invention.

What I claim is- 1. In a wheel, the combination with a rim,

ot a tire movably mounted in relation to the rim, a plurality ot tlat springsV interposed tangentially between said tire and rim, said tlat springs being fixed at kone end to the rim and inovably secured to the tire at the other end and being provided at their ends adjacent the tire with loops, anti-friction rollers within said loops and xed in rela- .tion to 'the tire, a fixed stop on the tire, coiled springs .engaging said fixed stops at one end, and a block ot fibrous material in# terposed between thetorward extremities ot the loops on said' iiat springs andthe said coiled springs there bein" lugs'tormed integrally on said fibrous b ock tor engaging the hollow ends ot said coiled springs.

2. ln a wheel, the'combination with a rim, ot a tire movably mounted in relation to the rim, said tire compiisinga metallic member channeled on its inner circumferential portion and being provided with a suitable tread on its outer circumference, a plurality ot flat springs each secured at one end to the rim et the wheel, 'each spring being ot unitorm width throughout and ot approximately the width ot the rim, there being loops termed. on the ends ot the springs adjacent the tire, anti-friction rollers ot liber journaled within the said spring loops within .the channeled inner 'circumterential portion ot the tire and a liningo-t fibrous mam terial within the channeled portion ot the` tire at the sides thereot.

rim, comprising a circumferential body por tion on its inner periphery and a contracted portion including the outer peripheral portion ot the rim, a tire movably mounted in relation to the rim, a plurality ot flat springs ot 'uniform width throughout and being ot the same width asA the contracted portion ot the rim, and extendingv tangentially into movable engagement with the y tire, and means tor securing the said springs to the contracted portion ot the rim comprising a Ushaped clamp, the branches ot which are separated a distance equal to the width 'otj the contracted portion ot the rim and the width ot the said fiat springs and extend beyondsaid springs and rim.

4. In a wheel, the combination with a rim provided on'its outer periphery with a contracted portion, a tire movably mounted in kvrelation tothe rim, a plurality ot flat springs secured to the rim and extending tangentially to have movable engagement with the tire, and clamps tor securing the said tlat springs to the wheel rim, each ot said clamps comprising a U-shaped member having parallel extensions adapted to register with a contracted portion ot the wheel rim, both said clamps and said rim being provided with registering openings tor radial and horizontal securing bolts.

5. A combination with a hub, spokes and Vtions between the outer'te'rminals ot said resilient members and said rim, and springs exerting 'apressure' directly upoi'i'the 'ends ot said movable connections.

'61 A combination with a hub, spokes and telly, said telly provided with a reduced portion, 'ot resilient members extending tangentially'troin the reduced portion ot said telly', Ueshap'e'd clamps extending over said resilient members and the reduced portion otth'e telly aforesaid, means tor vsecuring said resilient members and l`clampsto said telly, a`riin encircling s'aid telly, movable connections bet'we'enthe :outer terminals ot said resilient members and said rim, and means operable directly against said'n'io'v-v able connections tor receiving the end thrusts ot said resilient members. a

7. The combination with a"h'ub', spokes and telly, a rim encircling said telly* 'and constructed ot Aa channel bar, pins piercing the flanges ot said rim, bushings mounteldon said pins and terminating directly against the fia'nges ot the rim aforesaid, resilient members secured to said telly, movable conln a wheel, the combination with a nections between said resilient members and said telly, embracing said pins andbushii'igs atoresaid, and means operating directly against said movable connections tor 4'rel ceiving the end thrusts 'ot said resilieiitmenibers. e

8. The combination with a hub, spokes and telly, a rim encircling said telly con# strueted ot a channel bar, pins piercing the flanges ot said rim, bushings mounted on said pins and terminating directly against the tianges ot the rim aforesaid, resilient members' secured tos'aid telly, anti-friction rollers embracing said bushings; 'movable connections between said resilient members 'and said rim operating upon lsaid fanti-tric# tio'n rollers, and means operating directly against said movable connections tor taking up the endv thrusts ot saidresilient 'menibers.

'9. rthe combination with a hub, spokes and telly, 'ot a plurality ot resilientinem bers secured to said telly, an internally channeled rim encircling said telly, pins or bolts piercing the flanges ot said rim, bush ings mounted upon said pins or bolt-s tor retaining said tlanges` in fixed correlation, anti-triction rollers surrounding said bush'- ings, slidable connections between said 're1- silient members and said rim embracing said anti-triction rollers, blocks operating against the terminals ot said connections,

stops spaced from and arranged parallel to name to this speeilication, in the presence said blocks, and springs interposed betweenl of two Subscribing witnesses, on this 25th 10 said stops andE said blocks for receiving the day of April A. D. 1911. end thrusts o said resilient members, said 5 bushings, antiffrietion rollers, slidable con- LESLIE HARRINGTON' nections, blocks, stops and springs being Witnesses: housed between the flanges of said rim. FRANK T. BROWN,

In testimony whereof l have signed my NINA J. HALSNE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

